Ginrai

So I guest hosted Eeper's I Heart the 80's Podcast. We recorded this A YEAR AGO, but I guess he finally got around to editing it and posting it. http://capricorntheater.com/audio/krull_IHT80s.mp3 Ennnnnjoy!

So if I say what is in the thread on a recording, that's like 5 minutes, tops, and then what do you talk about for the rest of the time? We elected to just make fun of it. Angel's Egg sucks and as soon as you stop and try to dissect it you realize it's the kind of puerile "art for art's sake" brand new art students who are thrilled at being vague create. There's no meat, so the podcast is either over in five minutes, or you make fun of it and talk about something else. A video lava lamp is a good way of putting it, for sure.

Well, that's always the thing with Oshii. His work is typically beautiful but he always walks the razor's edge of boring and pretentious and sometimes he falls on the good side, and sometimes on the bad side. While his Ghost in the Shell is definitely not the colorful bouncy work of Shirow, I feel like compared to his other movies, it's paced pretty well and has enough action to keep from getting boring (except for that interminable boat scene). Angel's Egg, on the other hand, is Oshii at his most boring and pretentious. There's almost no dialogue in it and the dialogue that's there is almost all variations on "Who are you?" and quotes from the Bible grossly out of context. Beautiful Dreamer was kind of experimental and then he got cocky and made this crap. This one of those films that people on the internet have not actually seen, but have HEARD was really great, so they get all offended when you say it's garbage, for reasons that remain obscure to me.

The problem with Angel's Egg is that while it's totally gorgeous, it's empty and dull and just has that "oh WOW I just had art history 101" kind of symbolism in it. This is not the first time Japan has gone, "Hey, referring to the Bible MUST make our movie meaningful!" Beautiful Dreamer is about 9 million times better and Ghost in the Shell uses similar imagery much more effectively.

We have a new podcast up at: http://www.destroyallpodcastsdx.com It is about Angel's Egg, a snooty snooty snooty film from Ghost in the Shell's director, Mamoru Oshii! Did I mention it was snooty? It's snooty.

I thought she sucked in The Prestige, too. Totally one note and hollow.

She can only "act" when she is playing herself, as in Lost in Translation and Ghost World. Try choking down any movie where she is pretending to be someone else, like Black Dahlia. She's HORRIBLE.

Would have preferred someone who can act.

Could be! Hahaha.

Actually it's in Poland. And the sepia tone is a plot point. But otherwise you're right!

We have a new podcast up at: www.destroyallpodcastsdx.com It is about Avalon, a live action movie directed by Mamoru Oshii, director of Ghost in the Shell.

http://web.archive.org/web/20041228163415/...icinterview.txt Aramaki: But I wish we made only the motorbike. At the beginning, we thought we could do it with only the bike. The producer wanted an "attractive plan" rather than the sponsor's order to push it commercially. At that time, it was our first program and I thought, "That's the way it is," and followed his idea. Kakinuma: "An airplane is not enough. Let's put a booster. Let's make the booster transform..." Like that, we had no idea what we were doing. -Did each of you have your own role in the mecha design? Aramaki: I did the bike as I had started. [sic] But I drew Legioss and Mr. Kakinuma traced it. We had give and take. It was quite vague. Mr. Kakinuma made most of the enemy mecha, but both of us drew the set-up of each episode together. If I left my rough drawings, Mr. Kakinuma traced them, something like that.

Well, the interview from the Mospeada DVDs says the toy company demanded more spaceships and they just tossed a "rocket booster" on the Legioss or something to that effect.

Aramaki and Kakinuma worked together on all the mecha on Mospeada. With the Legioss and the Mospeada, Aramaki did roughs and Kakinuma cleaned them up. With the Tread and Inbit, Kakinuma did roughs and Aramaki cleaned them up.

The CollectionDX toyfair report on Toynami/Tamashii says the 1/55s are held up due to licensing issues with Big West.

When you have Shinji Aramaki doing all of your transforming robocycle designs, it's not a shock they like kind of samey. Mospeada, Garland, Motoslave, it's all hiiiim.

We have a new podcast up at: http://www.destroyallpodcastsdx.com It is about Last Mystery of the 20th Century, a TV special that came out a decade ago celebrating Osamu Tezuka's life and characters just in time for the year 2000. It's a crossover between Astroboy, Blackjack, Phoenix, and a bunch of other Osamu Tezuka works. Features a ten year old argument about when the new millennium started!

Gungriffon Blaze is a rental at best.

Hmm, well, Robotech.com on http://www.robotech.com/store/viewproductpreord.php?id=313 says, "Shipping this summer!" for what that's worth.

Uh, I'm pretty sure Brave Maximus retailed for about 20,000 yen, or around 200 dollars.

$500 is affordable?!

I always through tread had to do with that robot's big ol' boots.

I figured we'd better review your comic before interviewing you so no one could accuse us of being biased.

It's supposed to be like that. As I said, it's a reference to old Yakuza movies where the hero gets his ass kicked and is left in the mud at the end of the story. If you want a contemporary movie example, The Most Terrible Time in My Life.

The fact that the story in Megazone 23 actually reaches a climax and finishes is pretty obvious proof, whereas the Sentinels just wanders off. In the Sentinels, not once do our "heroes" confront a villain. Shogo has his showdown with BD and loses in classic yakuza movie fashion.